Terms and Conditions

Last updated 30 September 2013. You may wish to print this page for reference purposes.

This page sets out the full terms and conditions of use of the CHOICE website, mobile site, any downloadable applications (apps) and any other CHOICE platform and/or technology whether known now or created in the future (‘the Sites’). In these terms and conditions “you” are the user of the Sites and can be a person, a corporate entity or other entity incorporated or otherwise including, but not limited to, an association. This definition includes a reference to “your”.

Your use, user registration and/or subscription to one or more of the Sites constitute your agreement to these terms and conditions (“Agreement”).

This Agreement is between you and the Australian Consumers’ Association Ltd, a not-for-profit company, with its offices at 57 Carrington Rd Marrickville NSW 2204 Australia (“CHOICE”).

CHOICE may modify the Agreement at any time without providing notice to you. Your continued use of the Sites after such a modification constitutes your acceptance of any such modification. For this reason we provide a link to the terms and conditions at the bottom of every page and you should check them each time you visit and for any changes, as you are deemed to be bound if you use the Sites.

1. Terms of use of the Sites

Your rights and undertakings

Provided that you fully comply with this Agreement, CHOICE grants you a non-exclusive, non-transferable, limited right to access, use and display one or more of the Sites and the materials provided. The contents of the Sites are only for your personal, non-commercial use only. You agree not to interrupt, or attempt to interrupt, the operation of the Sites in any way.

PLEASE NOTE: You must not share this service with any other person or organisation. Institutional subscriptions for schools, libraries businesses and other multiple-user access to the premium or member part of the Sites are available on request. Call the CHOICE Customer Services Team on (1800 069 552) Mon-Fri 9am-5pm AEST for more information.

Your password

As part of the registration process, you will select a password. If the CHOICE Customer Services Team set up your access, you must immediately change the generic password used for that purpose on your next log in. You must take care to keep your password confidential, do not write it down or store it electronically where it can be discovered and do not disclose it to anyone.

PLEASE NOTE: You could be liable if an unauthorised person gains access to any of the Sites and breaches any part of the Agreement with your log in details.

Termination

In addition to any other rights of the parties, either you or CHOICE may cancel or terminate this Agreement at any time.

Subscriptions for the Sites are billed on a recurring basis. Five (5) working days (Monday to Friday inclusive) notice is required to cancel your subscription prior to the expiry date of your current recurring subscription. See Section 3 below for a full list of our process regarding refunds. CHOICE also reserves the right to restrict, suspend or terminate your access to the subscription section of the Sites in whole or in part, without notice, with respect to any breach or threatened breach by you of any part of this Agreement.

Your privacy

We are committed to the protection of your privacy and we abide by Australia’s National Privacy Principles (as amended and revised). See www.privacy.gov.au for details of the principles. We never sell, publish or disseminate mailing lists to third parties. See our Privacy Policy or contact us at the address below and we will send you a copy.

Policy for the use of CHOICE intellectual property

If you wish to use any CHOICE ratings, reports, articles, materials, photos, graphics, publications, books, products or equivalent materials including trade marks and other choice intellectual property (“the Materials”), in whole or part, you must obtain our written permission before doing so.

Use without written permission is forbidden. Failure to seek permission will be dealt with to the full extent of the law. Scraping any of the Sites is forbidden as is any reproduction of any content without permission.

Our materials are protected in Australia and internationally by the law of copyright, moral rights, trade mark, equity, trade practices, and other laws and principles such as the Competition and Consumer Act 2010. We reserve the right to take legal action to prevent any unauthorised use or reproduction of our materials, in whole or part, for any purpose including but not limited to advertising, copyright works, trade marks, logos and any commercial purpose use. Please report any breach of this Agreement to CHOICE at the above address.

Only CHOICE Award winners and CHOICE Recommended licensees are permitted to use the CHOICE trade mark and all advertising by those parties which uses the CHOICE trade mark is vetted by CHOICE before publication. Please refer to the CHOICE Recommended and CHOICE Awards pages found on the www.choice.com.au site.

Copyright and permissions

CHOICE owns the copyright for all material presented on the Sites. Except to the extent necessary for you to download any material on the Sites for your own personal use, reproduction (including by electronic means) of the Sites, CHOICE, CHOICE Books, CHOICE Computer , Digital CHOICE Plus, Digital CHOICE Computer, CHOICE Travel, CHOICE Health, CHOICE Online, CHOICE Money & Rights, CHOICE TV, CHOICE Mobile, CHOICE Computer Plus, CHOICE Plus, CHOICE Campaigns, CHOICE Help, CHOICE Health Reader and other CHOICE publications, in whole or in part, is forbidden without prior written permission and is never permitted for commercial purposes. Address requests to the CHOICE Customer Services Team using contact details provided in these terms.

Links to other sites

Links within the Sites are provided for your information. CHOICE does not endorse, and has not necessarily verified any of the information available with any link found within the Sites.

We welcome links from other sites to the Sites but not if you also use our intellectual property at the same time with or without permission. However, as noted elsewhere, the name CHOICE is a registered trade mark and the copyright for the Sites is owned by CHOICE.

PLEASE NOTE:

You may not copy or use any of the graphics (or other elements) from the Sites within another site — any link to us should be provided as a text link.

You may not link to the Sites within a frame in your site.

CHOICE will take all steps available to it to prevent links to the Sites, which fall outside these requirements.

2. Terms of use relating of the Sites for comments and general terms

The following terms relate to any and all communications including material, contributions, transactions, content and/or public communications and comments (“Communications”) by you which are submitted to one or more of the Sites.

CHOICE recommends that supervisors and guardians of children always monitor children's access to Communications on the World Wide Web. Please consider others when contributing to the Sites.

Removal of material

CHOICE may, in its absolute discretion at any time, without cause and without notice to you or any third party, remove any Communications from the Sites. The removal of said Communications is not an admission that any one or more of the Communications are inappropriate, nor is it an admission of any liability by CHOICE.

CHOICE will, if it considers it appropriate and in its absolute discretion, remove Communications and/or any other material within its control if it considers any one or more Communications and/or material is:

For a commercial purpose

Indecent or abusive

False or misleading

Slanderous, libellous or defamatory

Likely to cause injury of any kind

Likely to or does violate or breach any rights of any person and/or party

Likely to or does violate or breach any applicable laws, rules, or regulations

Likely to or does contain software viruses or any other malicious code

In its opinion, of a vexatious nature

Likely to relate to a membership or access issue and the customer has been contacted and/or the issue has been resolved

Off-topic and/or

Not adequately and/or properly declaring an association and/or vested interest in any brand, product and/or company

You are solely responsible for the content of any and all Communications you publish to the Sites. All such Communications are public, unless otherwise indicated. You must not include Communications, which may:

Be for commercial purposes

Be indecent or abusive

Be false or misleading, including the impersonation of other people

Slander, libel or defame any person or entity

Cause injury of any kind

Infringe or breach the intellectual property rights, contract rights, or any other rights of CHOICE and/or any third party

Violate and/or breach any applicable laws, rules, or regulations

Contain software viruses or any other malicious code

Cause harm, loss or damage to CHOICE and/or any third parties

You acknowledge and agree that, unless otherwise indicated, any and all Communications are public communications. You acknowledge that you have no expectation of privacy in any public Communications you make to the Sites.

You acknowledge and agree not to scrape information from the Sites on which and all Communications are conducted.

You grant to CHOICE a perpetual, worldwide, irrevocable, unrestricted, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to use, copy, license, distribute, display, reproduce, transmit, modify, edit and otherwise exploit any public Communications you publish at the Sites on which any and all Communications are conducted in all media whether now known or later developed.

You indemnify CHOICE for all loss it suffers because of any and all Communications you publish to the Sites on which Communications are conducted including any loss CHOICE suffers because of making the content of your Communications available to third parties.

CHOICE may at any time, in its absolute discretion and without notification, edit or remove any one or more of the Communications from the Sites on which communications are conducted including material and/or public Communications you have transmitted to the Sites on which Communications are conducted. CHOICE is under no obligation to make any Communications transmitted to the Sites on which Communications are conducted available to any person. CHOICE has no liability for any consequences of its reliance on its rights under this paragraph.

To the extent permissible by the laws of Australia, CHOICE disclaims all liability in relation to your use of the Sites on which any and all Communications are conducted.

Complaints about user comments

CHOICE will, in its absolute discretion, permanently remove any and all relevant Communications if CHOICE considers it appropriate to do so. While CHOICE aims to diligently act on any complaint, CHOICE cannot guarantee that that any complaint will be acted on within any specific time period. CHOICE will not act on any complaint which CHOICE deems, in its discretion, to be vexatious, or which appears to be vexatious. If you do not include your name and contact details in the complaint, we reserve the right to conclude and may treat the complaint as vexatious.

However, please be aware that, CHOICE does not have the resources to control, review or vet your or other contributor’s Communications and, accordingly, it does not control, review or systematically vet any of the content of any Communications. CHOICE neither takes responsibility for, nor endorses or necessarily agrees with your Communications and/or the Communications of any third party including members of the public. If you consider that any comment is inappropriate, unsuitable or breaches any term or condition of the Agreement, please click on the REPORT button and provide the following details:

(a) Why you consider the material to be inappropriate, unsuitable or in breach of these terms and conditions; and

(b) Your name and contact details.

CHOICE receives any and all complaints seriously. On receipt of any such complaint, CHOICE will in its absolute discretion temporarily remove any and all relevant Communications while it/they is/are reviewed by CHOICE.

Disclosure of vested interest

If you have an association with, or a vested interest in, a brand, product and/or company then you must advise CHOICE and other users of any association and/or interest at the time of any Communications and be completely transparent about the association and/or interest.

If you use official brand and/or company accounts you must include any such information in your display name which shows on your comments e.g. David, XYZ Company. You can change your display name by editing your profile.

Users using private accounts should include this information in their profile. If the user’s comment is related to the brand or company which they have an association with or vested interest in, or to a direct competitor, they should state this in the body of their comment. E.g. I am an employee of XYZ Company but these views are my own.

CHOICE contribution

From time to time, CHOICE staff may respond to queries or comments. Such participation is not an approval, agreement or endorsement of your or another parties Communications, nor is it indicative of a systematic review of that or any other forum facilitated by CHOICE.

3. Terms and conditions of sale

Seller

For the purposes of all sales transacted on the Sites on which transactions are conducted, the seller is:

Pricing

All prices are in Australian dollars. If you require a currency converter, click here.

Please note that CHOICE may change prices within your subscription period, to take effect in the next billing cycle. Please check for any prices increases before your subscription is renewed. We will notify you in advance of any pricing changes to your subscription.

Your rights

Under Australia’s Competition and Consumer Act 2010 and related state and territory laws, you have remedies available to you. If you consider something you have purchased from the Sites are not of the standard you expected given its price, and the way it was described, then there you may be entitled to a refund. Please see our cancellation, refunds & returns policy. For more information about your remedies, read our article on your shopping rights.

Complaints

CHOICE does not belong to any independent dispute resolution programs. If you feel your complaint has not been handled adequately by us you should refer to your home state or territory Department of Consumer Affairs or Fair Trading.

The Sites have been developed primarily for Australian consumers and it is assumed most customers will be resident of Australia. The applicable law for matters concerning all CHOICE products and services, including CHOICE, Digital CHOICE Plus, Digital CHOCE Computer, CHOICE Books, Computer CHOICE, CHOICE Travel, CHOICE Health, CHOICE Online, CHOICE Money & Rights, CHOICE TV, CHOICE Mobile, CHOICE Computer Choice, CHOICE Books Plus, CHOICE Campaign, CHOICE Help, CHOICE Health Reader, CHOICE Apps and other CHOICE platforms and initiatives is that of the state of New South Wales Australia.

Subscriptions and renewals

Subscriptions to the Sites operate on a recurring basis. See Product Page for details of our subscriptions.

Credit Card and Direct Debit processing

To ensure continued access to CHOICE products and services credit cards and direct debits will be processed on the day of expiry of subscription.

Credit Card security

When renewal notices are sent out (if applicable) most, but not all, of the numbers on your credit card will be masked. The credit card details are not held by CHOICE but are stored securely by our bank. This is to ensure your details are secure and the masking of the details is consistent with a worldwide payment card industry data security standard.

Processing payments on expired Credit Cards

While CHOICE continues to make efforts to ensure credit card details for our members are up to date through regular emails and on-screen notifications, under the payment card industry guidelines (PCI), recurring payments, such a membership renewals, can still be processed on supplied credit cards beyond the expiry date, so long as the credit card number remains valid. The only way a recurring payment can be stopped is by cancelling the membership or by cancelling the credit card.

In some cases the issuing bank (i.e. the bank attached to your credit card) may prevent or reject the payment from being processed, but this would be based on the bank's own individual terms and conditions. You should contact your bank in this instance.

Cancellations, refunds & returns

To cancel an annual subscription or enquire about a return or refund, please call the CHOICE Customer Services Team on 1800 069 552 or send an email to ausconsumer@choice.com.au or write to us at 57 Carrington Road Marrickville NSW 2204.

If you wish to cancel an annual magazine subscription, you may do so at the end of the current subscription cycle. In the case of a quarterly automatic magazine subscription, we will terminate your subscription at the expiration of the current quarter. All refunds are by cheque.

The Sites subscriptions are billed on a recurring basis. You must let us know at least five (5) working (Monday to Friday) days before the end of your current subscription period that you no longer wish to subscribe. We will subsequently cancel your subscription to take effect at the end of that subscription period.

For other products sold through a shop on one or more of the Sites, you may return any damaged or unwanted product within thirty (30) working (Monday to Friday) days for a prompt refund of its purchase price. Shipping costs refunds occur when the problem is a result of our error. Please make sure that you include the original packing slip with the product and that it is securely wrapped when sought to be returned. Send the package to:

CHOICE

57 Carrington Rd, Marrickville NSW 2204 AUSTRALIA

Delivery

Books and other products ordered from one or more of the Sites will be dispatched via Australia Post within two (2) working (Monday to Friday) days if in stock. If the product you want is not in stock, you'll be notified by email, text, or other private manner of making contact giving you an expected shipping date. Subscriptions to magazines commence with the first issue after an order is received, and are delivered around the first week of each month in which the magazine is published. Postage charges are additional for books.

Security

All details, including credit card information, submitted through the Sites pass through our secure server, which offers 128-bit encryption.

Corrections to the Sites

CHOICE has the absolute right to correct any errors or omissions, and change any part of the Sites without notice. If you find an error, please report it to the CHOICE Customer Services Team.